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The reason that the debt crisis was so much more serious in the eurozone than anywhere else is that monetary union forced a number of states to pursue policies that exacerbated their economic woes. During the boom years, to the alarm of observers, the peripheral eurozone states were obliged to cut interest rates at a time when every orthodox economist of Left or Right would have decreed a rate rise to prevent a bubble. Then, when the crash came, these same states were unable to cushion the blow with a temporary devaluation, and so had to raise taxes during the downturn.

Colombian smuggling network that was recently discovered in the Netherlands. Rather than importing cocaine, this gang was devoted to the equally tricky problem of sending large quantities of illicitly acquired cash back to Colombia without raising the suspicions of the authorities. It did this by paying amateur mules EUR3,000 ($3,350) each to carry suitcases containing up to EUR150,000 in cash back to Bogota. (Smuggling cash out of Europe is made much easier by the existence of the EUR500 bill, a ludicrously high-value banknote that has made life much easier for criminals, who can hide EUR20,000 in a single cigarette packet. In some European countries the bills are known as "bin Ladens": everyone knows they exist, but no one apart from criminals ever sees them.)